Double brim hat



INVENTORS CHA 1.65 BY CHAR? .5

Sept. 18, 1962 c. H. sALEsKY ETAL DOUBLE BRIM HAT Filed May 19, 1960 United States Patent O 3,054,113 DOUBLE BRlM HAT Charies H. Salesky, East Norwalk, and Charles Russel Havens, Norwalk, Conn., assignors to Hat Corporation of America, South Norwalk, Conn., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 19, 1966, Ser. No. 30,183 2 Claims. (Cl. 2-175) This invention relates to felted hats and processes of producing them. More particularly, it relates to an improved hat with a novel felted double brim `and to the method of producing it.

Double brim felt hats are generally formed by extending the brim of the hat over or under itself, as the case may be, and sealing the free edge to the crown portion of the hat body near the inner edge of the brim with adhesive material which may be supplemented at times with the stitching employed in securing the sweat band to the hat.

This type of hat is generally made by the conventional process of making felt hats up to the point at which the double brim is formed. At this point, the portion of the hat body forming the brim, which is made longer than in single brim hats, is doubled back on itself to form the double brim. This is a hand operation which involves reorienting the fur of the felt and reworking the felt to give the desired shape to the doubled back portion. `It involves moistening and working the felt over a form and pulling and manipulating it unt1l the desired form is achieved.

The current process involves carroting or pretreatment of the fur or hair with a mixture of peroxide and acid. The carroted fur may then be mixed with synthetic bers, if desired.

The hat body is then formed by blowing a predetermined quantity of fur into a closed chamber where 1t 1s sucked onto a perforated cone which has a gradual taper and which is materially larger than the finished hat body. The cone with the fur thereon is then covered'with a damp cloth and is dipped in hot water to initiate the felting.

The fur mat thus formed is stripped `from the cone and is usually subjected to three hardening steps in which a small degree of felting occurs. Generally, these steps are termed the rst hardening, second hardening and third hardening or starting step since many hatters believe that the felting action actually starts with the third hardening step. In each of these steps the hat body is subjected to agitation, pressure and hot water by passing the hat body through rollers and tubs containing hot Water a number of times such that the hat experiences about l() percent shrinkage in each step.

After the third hardening step, the hat body, which is generally conical in shape but in a flattened cond-ition, is passed to the A machine where it is subjected to considerably more manipulation and agitation than heretofore applied by the application of high pressure and hot water to cause the hat body to felt to a greater extent. The hat body usually shrinks about 30% during this operation. Next, the felt is dyed if desired, and then subjected to high pressure and hot water on what is termed the B machine, where the final felting takes place. The body experiences about 30% shrinkage during this operation, bringing the final body to a size about one-half the size of the original fur mat taken from the perforated cone.

The hats are then given a rough shape by means of a pulling action which is referred to as tipping The crown and brim are thus roughly formed and the hats Patented Sept. 1S, 1962 ICC ber cylinder and subjected to steaming, `followed by immersion in cold water.

At this point, the double brim is formed by placing the hat on a block which ts in the crown and which is provided with a laterally extending `form representing the brim. The free edge of the hat body or brim overlaps this brim form, and after moistening and steaming, the brim of the hat body is subjected to material pulling and manipulation which tends to reorient the hair in the felt and work the folded-back portion of the brim into a form lwhich generally conforms to the overall shape of the other portion of the brim. This involves several wettings", steamings,` and manipulations, after which the free edge is adhesively secured to the inner portion of the crown adjacent the inner edge of the brim. The excess felt is trimmed away.

The hats may then be pounced or treated with iine abrasive to eliminate surface fuzz and smooth the felt. The hats are then finished by blocking and other manipulations which give the nal form to the crown and the brim.

The leather sweat bands are then inserted and sewed in place, at which time the threads securing the sweat band in place also tend to anchor the free edge of the double brim.

Double brim hats made in this vfashion have become popular in this country. However, they are subject to a number of defects, and because of the hand operation in forming the brim, are expensive to make.

There is a tendency for the two layers of the brim to separate or balloon, causing the hat to lose shape. Furthermore, when the hat is reconditioned the adhesive layer becomes disrupted, and since the stitching which may help to hold the free edge in place is also removed, the problem of reconditioning is complicated.

Furthermore, the free edge of the brim inside the crown of the hat `causes an undesirable decrease in the opening or an undesirable thickening of the hat body at the edge of the brim.

It is one object of this invention to provide an improved double brim hat.

It is another object to provide such `a hat in which the two layers of the brim are essentially the same in form and felt formation so that they will behave or wear the same and thus not separate or balloon to the extent encountered in double brim hats made by the current process.

It is a further object to provide such a hat in which there is no objectionable doubling of the felt at the inner edge of the brim inside the crown.

It is a further object to provide such a hat which may be reconditioned simply and easily.

It is another object of the invention to provide an improved process for making double brim hats which is cheaper than, and is superior to, the current process and which produces an improved hat.

According to this invention, there is provided a one piece hat comprising a hat body having a central crown portion and a brim extending therefrom, said brim comprising two separate layers of felt joined together at their outer peripheries by an integral fold of felt, each of said layers comprising fur felted to a relatively large circumferential dimension adjacent the outer peripheries of the brim and to a relatively smaller circumferential dimension adjacent the inner peripheries of the brim, the inner edge of one of said layers of felt being joined to the hat body adjacent the inner edge of the brim by interfelting of the fur of said layer with the fur of said crown portion.

The double brim hat of this invention is made by a are then blocked by Putting the rough CIOWII 011 a rub-process which makes use of existing commercial equipment and employs several ofthe conventional steps usually used in hatting.

Thus, the fur is carroted and a predetermined weight of fur is blown and sucked onto a tapered cone to form a fur mat as previously described. The fur mat is then subjected to the hardening steps, but preferably prior to the third hardening or starting step, a segment of the lower portion of the hat body is folded over upon itself so as to form what will be the double brim of the completed hat. The upper edge of the doubled over segment is then sewn to what will be the crown of the finished hat. It is important that the stitching takes place at an appropriate time in the process so as to prevent the entire doubled over segment of the mat from being felted to the central crown portion. At the same time the stitching should be delayed until the mat body has undergone some felting action. We therefore prefer to stitch the folded over section to the crown body prior to the starting step. The fur mat is then subjected to the felting action of the A machine as described previously. The stitching holding the folded over segment of the hat body is removed and the hat body may then be dyed if desired and subjected to the treatment of the B machine where the final felting action takes place. When the hat is removed from the B machine, the upper edge of the folded over section of the mat has been felted to the crown and the hat body is then ready for the finishing operations such as shaping, pouncing, ironing, lining, etc.

Thus, hats made in accordance with this invention have a brim comprising two layers that are fully separable and which are not felted together, although the end of the layer which had been folded over and sewn to the crown is felted to the crown of the hat. Moreover, since both layers in the brim of the hat were formed in the early stages of the process, both layers behave in substantially the same manner and thus eliminate many of the problems associated with prior art dou-ble brim hats. While we do not wish to be bound by any theory as to the reason why our hats eliminate the bubbling problem and are superior to double brim hats made by conventional processes, we believe that since the brim is formed in the early stages of the process, both layers of the brim are subjected to substantially the same felting operations and consequently felt at essentially the same rate and in the same manner. Thus, the relatively large circumferential dimension adjacent the outer peripheries of both layers of the brim have been felted in substantially In folding back the section of the mat to form what will 'be the brim of the hat, care should be taken to see that the outer circumference of the portion folded back has substantially the same circumference as the crown portion upon which it is folded. This aids both in the stitching operation and in the subsequent felting operations. The fur mat is then subjected to the felting action of the starting step and of the A machine where the edge of the folded over portion of what will be the brim, is felted to the crown. At this point, the stitching is removed and the excess edge is trimmed. The hat is then dyed if desired, and finally subjected to the operation of the B machine where the final felting action takes place. The

the same manner, while the relatively smaller circumferential dimension adjacent the inner edge of the brim, has also been felted in substantially the same manner. Hence, since the two layers have substantially the same characteristics, they wear in fundamentally the same manner and thus eliminate Wrinkling, bubbling, etc., due to the uneven felting of the two layers of the brim in conventional double brim hats.

For a more detailed explanation of this invention, reference should now be made to the following description and to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 are perspective views of the hat I of this invention in various stages of preparation.

FIGURE 4 is a cut-away perspective view of the brim showing the double brim felted to the crown of the hat, and FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5--5 of FIGURE 4 of the brim showing the double brim felted to the crown of the hat.

Referring now to FIGURES l, 2 and 3, a fur mat in -various stages of processing is shown. FIGURE 1 shows the mat 10 as it looks after the first or second hardening step. Preferably, at this point and before subjecting the matto the third hardening step, a portion of the mat 10, is folded upon itself as shown in FIGURE 2, thereby forming what is to be the crown portion 11 and the brim portion 12 of the finished hat. The folded over section is stitched to the crown portion as shown in FIGURE 3.

hat is finished by shaping, pouncing and blocking in accordance with conventional practices. The finished hat is shown in FIGURE 4 from which it will be seen that the double brim 12 Ihas two layers 13 and 13a and is felted to the crown 11 adjacent the inner edge of the brim. Furthermore, from FIGURE 5, it will be seen that there is no overlapping of the inner edge of the brim with the crown 11 at the point of juncture.

The customary time-consuming hand operations of forming double brims and the virtually re-felting of the brim by hand, is eliminated by the above process. In addition, the double brim hats of this invention are superior to those produced in accordance with prior art processes and wear considerably better. Moreover, our hats have the unique feature of being seamless so as to allow for correct sizing. Double brirnrned hats heretofore `formed by overlapping the free edge of the brim with the crown portion of the hat body and sealing the free edge of the brim to the crown with adhesive material, must allow for this overlapping of felt in the sizing of the hat. In our hats, since the edge of the double brim is felted to the crown, no overlapping layers are formed and the crown may be sized to the exact dimension desired.

In addition to the elimination of the seam, our hats are also much easier to renovate. During the renovation of a hat, the hat is stripped of the sweat band, lining and is blocked, ironed, etc., so as to give it a new appearance. When the prior art double brim hats are renovated, the point of overlapping between the brim and the crown is frequently ruptured because of the various operations to which the hat is subjected during the renovation process. Such a rupture is impossible in our hats however, because they are Vseamless and consequently there is no place at which a rupture can take place.

Having thus provided a written description of the present invention and provided specific examples thereof, it should be understood that no undue restrictions or limitations are to be imposed by reason thereof but that the present invention is defined by the appended claims.

We claim:

Y 1. A process of manufacturing a double brim one piece continuously felted hat comprising a hat body having a central crown portion and a brim extending generally laterally therefrom comprising two distinct substantially identical layers, each having the bers thereof felted substantially identically with the fibers of the other, said layers being substantially coextensive in area with the area of said brim, said process comprising forming'a tapered generally conical fur mat, forming the double brim by doubling over the bottom portion of the fur mat and `attaching the upper edge of the doubled over portion to the body of said mat on a line adjacent the portion of the mat which becomes the inner edge of the brim to create a portion of said mat having separate overlying distinct layers, subjecting said mat including the doubled over portion to the same felting operations whereby the fibers of the fur of said mat including the doubled over portion are felted by the same felting manipulations and said mat including the doubled over portion is reduced in size to its final size by the same felting manipulations, thus forming two layers of felted fur substantially identical with one another by reason of the similarity of the `felting operation for both layers, each of the layers of said doubled over portion of said mat body being felted to a relatively large circumferential dimension adjacent the bottom peripheries of the layers and to a relatively smaller circumferential dimension adjacent the upper peripheries of said layers, and shaping and nishing said mat to produce a double brim hat.

2. An article of manufacture comprising a continuously felted one piece hat comprising a hat body having a central crown portion and a brim extending generally laterally therefrom, said brim comprising two separate substantially identical layers of felt in face to face relationship joined together at their outer peripheries by an integral fold of felt, each of said layers being of the same unstressed circumferential dimension yas the other at all corresponding points and each having the same relatively large unstressed circumferential dimension adjacent the outer periphery of the brim and having the same rela- 6 tively smaller unstressed circumferential dimension adjacent the inner periphery of the brim, the inner edge of one of said layers of felt being joined to the hat body adjacent the inner edge of the brim by an interfelting of the fur of said layer with the fur of said crown portion.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 215,411 Thomas May 13, 1879 370,963 Materne et al. Oct. 4, 1887 1,412,479 Mayleas Apr. 11, 1922 1,805,977 Cavanagh May 19, 1931 1,813,861 Lee July 7, 1931 l2,088,930 Schwarz Aug. 3, 1937 2,472,263 Pasko June 7, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 146,978 Austria Sept. 10, 1936 

